Developing monoecious line of muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.)

Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) is an important cucurbitaceous crop grown as a ‘Dessert Crop’ throughout the warmer parts of world. In the course of investigations on evaluation and characterization of muskmelon genotypes at CIAH, Bikaner, a monoecious land race was identified from the genetic stock collected from Sirohi district of Rajasthan and designated as AHMM/BR-8. The monoecious plants were self pollinated and the seeds were collected Separately. The individual plant progenies of selected plants were raised for generation advancement. Single plant selection was exercised based on earliness, fruit size, flesh colour and TSS. The obtained population was also tested for stability and observed monoecious sex form in all plants. Plants of this line produced round fruits with salmon orange coloured flesh of 3.2-4.0 cm thickness, 10.8-11.3 TSS and 478-570 g/cm2 hardness. Plants start to produce female flowers in 45-48 days after sowing. The number of fruits/ plant was found to be 3.47- 4.27 weighing 0.8-1.10 kg which develop full slip at ripening. The biochemical analysis was also done for total Sugar (336.9 mg/g), tannin content (0.12 mg/g), phenol content (34.7 mg/g) and flavonoid content (1.05 mg/g) on dry weight basis. Thus, the presence of stable monoecious sex form in this line could be utilized in F1 hybrid production of muskmelon